Re: Fred Phelps near death, also ex-communicated
As one of the people his brood's "preaching" affects personally, I've been thinking and writing a lot of thoughts about Phelps. For the majority of you who aren't on my Facebook, here is the status update I just wrote:
I've been thinking a lot about the legacy that Rev. Fred Phelps, founder of the Westboro Baptist Church, leaves behind now that he's dead. I can't take joy in the fact that he's dead, but I'm not shedding any tears either.
He was a hateful, spiteful man who did so much evil in the name of false testimony to his god, but I can't help thinking that celebrating his death, whether it be protesting his funeral or dancing on his grave would lower us to his and his minions' levels. We don't need to demonstrate the level of hyprocrisy in our lives he did by couching his actions in "the bible" by celebrating the end of his life.
I'm not asking anyone to forgive him or absolve him of anything. I'm not asking people to show him the dignity in death that he denied so many others in life. I'm asking people to rise above the hatred he leaves behind as his legacy. We are all better than that. We all should shine a much brighter light in our worlds.
I'm skeptical about whether or not there is an afterlife or a heaven or a hell. I'm confident that if there is, he will get the justice he deserves. That's more than enough.